My J.J. Watt interview (with small interlude of cute and funny)

Miss America and J.J. Watt are both from Wisconsin. She put this picture on her Twitter with a “On Wisconsin.”

I was not at the Super Bowl. J.J. Watt was for a a little while. He was invited by Gatorade to be a part of their testing at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI). The GSSI puts athletes through performance testing to assess strengths and weaknesses, including evaluating nutritional intake. The kind folks at Gatorade reached out to me and asked if I wanted to interview Watt. I meant to put this up last week, but my sciatic nerve was bugging me so sitting was non-comfortable. Yes, that is one lame blogging injury. I confess to wussdom.

J.J. Watt is not a wuss.

J.J. Watt Q&A:

You had an outstanding rookie year. What do you think were the easiest and hardest part of the transition from college to the pros:

“I think some of the easiest things that are, are watching some of my own putting in that extra time on my own putting a lot of this at Wisconsin. One of the most difficult things were I mean everything from the speed and size of the guys to handling the heat, I mean handling the heat this is most definitely one of the toughest things I had to do.”

Wade Phillips was installing different aspects of the defense over the course of the season. By the end of the year, did he install the entire defense?

“We have most of it in. One thing about our defense is we keep it real simple. It is nice because it lets us flying around, it lets us just play the game the way we know how to play it. And he is so calm and confident and he knows this defense so well that as long as we execute our assignments, we will be in the position to make some plays.”

Tell fans a bit about your position coach, Bill Kollar.

“Coach Kollar, he’s a good guy. He’s a very fiery guy. He’s gonna get the most out of you. He makes sure that you have a 110 percent effort every single play, and that’s what I like about him, and he can make sure he’s gonna get everything you got.”

What sort of technique things does he focus on?

“He taught me a lot about pass rushing and how to use my power in conjunction with my speed and vice versa, on how using my hands, and also using some of that speed to keep it beneficial.”

I understand you receive grades after each game. Could you explain how that works?

“Basically, every play you have a job, you have an assignment, and so the grade works on whether or not you completed your assignment. To get a positive grade, you don’t necessarily have to make the tackle every single play, but as long as you are in your gap and doing your job, you get the positive grade. Obviously you get a negative grade being outside of your gap, getting on the ground, something like that.”

What was your best graded game?

“I would say, I didn’t actually get my grades from the last game but I think that was probably my best graded game, the Baltimore game during the playoffs.”

Do you guys get competitive with these grades after game?

“Yes, we do. We get very competitive and obviously a better graded game means you are playing better so we all want to be a hundred percent so if we can accomplish that someday, that would be pretty special.”

You’ve been visiting Radio Row at the Super Bowl. How cool is it?

“Very cool, this is my first time down here obviously. And I’m having a blast. It’s cool to see all the big names, big faces, and know that I’m hopefully I’m becoming one of them. It’s something very cool, and hopefully I won’t get to do it next year or any year because that will mean I’m playing in the game.”

(Steph Note: I went to Radio Row when I visited the Super Bowl in Miami. It was extremely weird and cool to see all the athletes/media folks I’ve been watching, seeing, reading my whole life. May have been my favorite part of the experience. I did not see Miss America).

Explain what you are doing with Gatorade in Indy.

“Today I was going doing some GSSI testing, and I’m having a lot of fun with Gatorade because they’re telling me about my performance and how I can make it better, and in the NFL, you look for every edge you can get, and so a lot of players think do your cleats make a difference? Does your uniform make a difference? But it’s really all about what you put in your body that’s what Gatorade is teaching me.”

What advice did you receive from the testing?

“What I do, what I’ve been doing all year is I take a Gatorade Prime before a game and at halftime, and then I drink I drink regular Gatorade during the game. And so one of the thing I’m gonna do now is I’m going to have a Gatorade bar and Gatorade Prime, to get a little extra carbohydrates to help keep me going throughout the entire game, and that’s one thing I’m going to change and look forward to seeing on how it affects me.”

What special things did they tell you about preparing for the hot Texans training camps?

“A lot has to do with sodium intake so I make sure to get a lot of salt in me, just so I can retain those fluids and so they can get to my muscles, so I don’t cramp up and all those things. and they actually help me a lot last year throughout training camp those 105, 110 degree days I go through a lot of Gatorade because that helps keep me hydrated and make sure I keep going.”

(Steph note: I do not think camp is 105 or 110 degrees in Houston. It just feels that way. It actually feels like standing on the surface of the sun. I will tell you just standing on the sidelines doing nothing, it often gives me a headache the first couple of days of camp. As I mentioned before, I’m a wuss. Bloggers aren’t supposed to see the sun.)

Miss America being from Wisconsin is a Packers fan. Have you tried to convince her to make the Texans her AFC team?

“We haven’t talked about it yet, but I will most definitely bring it up next time I talk to her.”

And now a moment of cuteness.

I’d like to thank J.J. for doing this interview. My daughter has been a big J.J. fan since he was drafted because they share the same initials. Now she is a big fan because he is very very good at what he does. When she heard I was doing the interview, she asked if she could talk to him, and given that the interview took place right after school, why not? He shares a message to her, and to all of us.

And for equal time, here’s the rest of my family. My husband on the guitar and my son who decided it would be funny to use PVC pipe as a wind instrument.

/End digression.

The folks at Pro Football Focus do their own grading of players. As I understand it, they don’t grade the same way the Texans position coaches do, as they do not know the assignments, but they mostly focus on making plays and not making penalties.

Interestingly, they have Watt’s performance against Baltimore as his second best performance. His best according to them? His second game against Indianapolis. They counted his penalties against him but his overall performance by their measures was beastly. According to their measurements, Watt had 12 above average games, 2 below average games early in the year, and 4 neutral games. If you want to see the detailed breakdowns, I suggest subscribing to their Premium Service. But whether it is his best performance or near his best performance, to play your best ball in the playoffs is a good thing.

Next post, draft talk. I promise. But I will suggest to you that you shouldn’t be too tied to preconceived notions of need. A lot of people thought the Texans didn’t need J.J. Watt, that the transition of Mario Williams to 3-4 OLB was a mistake. Now it is hard to fathom the Texans without Watt.